Quiet Nights and Christmas Lights

When the weather turns cold, evenings seem so much longer. Not just because of the early arrival of darkness, but because we as a family have always stayed inside more. In warm weather we loved to be outside playing games or doing that extra chore. But now that the evenings are chilly we find ourselves sitting at the table working on a project or sitting by the fire, talking about life and spending time what we tenderly refer to as " solving the worlds problems". We do come up with some splendid ideas during these rather lengthy discussions.
Last night however, we just sat snuggled up on the couch, listening to music, making plans for the future and enjoying the lights of the Christmas tree.
I am a bit of a Christmas tree light lover. There is a strand of lights with the greenery that hangs from the big cedar beam in the living room, and another one in the "girlie" spare bedroom, and then there are lights along the cabinet tops in the kitchen. So at night, the house is softly glowing with Christmas lights in most rooms. We have not put out outside lights this year. Laziness is part of the reason, the other reason is the recent "explosion" of the amount of lights used that has made me very aware of the American need to do things in a big way, and loosing the sense of good taste. There are so many houses that look like they are trying to attract the "Mother Ship" with the mass number of lights. The putting up of Christmas lights has reached a point when it seems its all about who can have the most. And in all honesty some houses, well many actually seem to have no real theme other than " MORE IS BETTER" an attitude I find so prevalent. The 'over doing" of things tends to make me retreat and go back to find the simplier way.
I have candles in each window, as I have done from our first Christmas, lighting the way for the Christ child. In Ireland, folks have a lit candle in the window on Christmas eve, a sign to welcome Mary and Joseph . A simple reminder of what its really all about.

Our tree last night